A desk review is a compliance assistance tool that consists of phone calls, emails, interviews and document exchanges between E-Verify’s Account Compliance staff and E-Verify participants. Desk reviews allow compliance staff to help E-Verify participants correct employment verification activities that E-Verify staff have detected as non-compliant. Participants selected for a desk review provide compliance staff with E-Verify employment-related documents, such as Tentative Nonconfirmation (mismatch) notices, referral letters, and employment verification procedures and process documents. Compliance staff review and analyze these documents to determine if the participant is properly following E- Verify policies and procedures. Compliance staff will then assist E-Verify participants to correct any problems and provide an enhanced level of user assistance. Failure to cooperate with a desk review is a violation of the E-Verify Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and may lead to further compliance action, up to and including termination of your E‑Verify MOU and access to E-Verify.
Requirements of a desk review
To better understand how an enrolled employer uses E-Verify and to ensure compliance with program guidelines and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), compliance staff are authorized to review a participant’s employment eligibility verification records. When conducting a desk review compliance staff will request copies of:
List A Document - Documents that Establish Both Identity and Employment Authorization
Employers who participate in E-Verify must retain copies of the front and back of employee’s documents used for photo matching and retain them with the Form I-9. List A documents include:
List B Documents - Documents that Establish Identity
Employees of E-Verify participants who present a List B document are required to provide a List B document with a photo. Employers are not required to retain copies of the identity documents for their employees when presenting Form I-9. But employers who choose to keep copies, must retain them for all employees, and retain the copies with the employee’s Forms I-9 or employee record.
List C Documents - Documents that Establish Employment Authorization
While employers are not required to retain copies of the employment authorization documents their employees present for Form I-9 completion, employers who choose to keep copies must retain them for all employees and with their employee’s Form I-9.
Note
E-Verify Account Compliance has authority to take and consider evidence related to employment eligibility verification under Section 287(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1357(b), and in associated rules and regulations. All E-Verify participants must follow the guidelines set forth in the MOU and the rules and responsibilities outlined in the ‘E-Verify User Manual for Employers.’ Article II, Section A, Item 18 of the MOU states:
“The employer agrees to cooperate with DHS and SSA in their compliance monitoring and evaluation of E-Verify, which includes permitting DHS, SSA, their contractors and other agents, upon reasonable notice, to review Forms I-9 and other employment records and to interview it and its employees regarding the Employer’s use of E-Verify, and to respond in a prompt and accurate manner to DHS requests for information relating to their participation in E-Verify.”